This invention relates to an improvement in bottle filling machines.
Bottle filling machines have been known for many years. In one very common type of bottle filling machine, the bottles are carried on platforms which are raised by a cam type of mechanism so that each bottle is raised to encircle a filler tube and sealingly engage with a filler bell which is slidable up and down the filler tube. When a bottle is in the upper position, its mouth is sealed by a resilient seal at the top of the mouth of the bell and liquid enters the bottle through the filler tube. Frequently, this liquid is under pressure, e.g. beer or carbonated drinks, and occasionally a bottle will explode. An exploding bottle can cause glass fragments to adhere to the underside of the bell and to the filler tube. It is obviously desirable to remove these glass particles so that they cannot enter a subsequent bottle. Indeed, in some jurisdictions, there may be legislation requiring that steps be taken to ensure that bottles are not sold which contain glass particles. Of course there is, in any case, the danger of a possibly expensive lawsuit if a consumer suffers harm from ingesting glass particles from a bottle of beer or other liquid. There is, therefore, a clear need for some way to ensure removal of glass particles from the filler tube and bell.
At present, it is known to manually apply a spray of low-pressure water to clean the filler tube and bell but this is a rather slow and inefficient operation. The slowness of the operation results in lost production and hence is costly. Low-pressure water has been used in order not have it spray into the bottle filling machine and get on or in other bottles in the filler machine.
Low-pressure water may, of course, not remove all of the glass particles.
When a bottle explodes, the bell, in equipment current in use, drops down to the end of the filler tube so that the mouth of the bell is only slightly above the platform on which the bottle was being carried. This means that it is very difficult to direct a spray of water to the underside of the bell because of the interference of the platform.